Books like The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are

01

The Wisdom of Insecurity

Alan Watts · Philosophy

The Wisdom of Insecurity, published in 1951, is Alan Watts's argument that the anxiety pervading modern life is a direct consequence of the attempt to find permanent security in an impermanent world.

Shares identity and consciousness with The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are.

02

Tao Te Ching

Laozi · Philosophy

The Tao Te Ching is one of the most translated texts in world literature and the foundational scripture of Taoism.

A kindred philosophy read.

03

The Power of Now

Eckhart Tolle · Religion & Spirituality

The Power of Now is Eckhart Tolle's argument that the root of human suffering is identification with the stream of thought — the restless inner commentary that most people mistake for who they are.

Both dig into consciousness.

04

Meditations

Marcus Aurelius · Philosophy

Meditations is not a book Marcus Aurelius wrote for anyone to read.

A kindred philosophy read.

05

Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives

David Eagleman · Philosophy

Sum: Forty Tales from the Afterlives is a collection of forty short, fictional vignettes, each imagining a different version of what happens after death.

Shares identity and consciousness with The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are.

06

The Mind's I

Douglas Hofstadter & Daniel Dennett · Philosophy

The Mind's I is a collaborative anthology edited by Douglas Hofstadter and Daniel Dennett, two of the most influential thinkers on consciousness and mind of the late twentieth century.

Shares identity and consciousness with The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are.

07

The Way of Zen

Alan Watts · Religion & Spirituality

The Way of Zen was Alan Watts' most widely read and carefully argued work, published in 1957 at a time when Zen was largely unknown to English-speaking audiences.

Shares consciousness and eastern philosophy with The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are.

08

Ulysses

James Joyce · Literary fiction

Ulysses takes place on a single day — June 16, 1904 — in Dublin, following three characters: Leopold Bloom, an advertising canvasser; his wife Molly; and Stephen Dedalus, the young writer from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.

Shares identity and consciousness with The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are.

09

Being and Nothingness

Jean-Paul Sartre · Philosophy

Being and Nothingness is Sartre's major philosophical treatise and the founding text of French existentialism.

Both dig into consciousness.

10

Consciousness Explained

Daniel C. Dennett · Philosophy

Consciousness Explained is Daniel Dennett's attempt to replace what he calls the Cartesian Theater — the intuitive picture of consciousness as a single unified stream of experience observed by a self — with a model he calls Multiple Drafts.

Both dig into consciousness.

11

Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking

Daniel Dennett · Philosophy

Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking is Daniel Dennett's handbook for thinking well — a collection of seventy-odd conceptual tools assembled across a long career in philosophy of mind, cognitive science, and evolutionary theory.

Both dig into consciousness.

12

Letters and Papers from Prison

Dietrich Bonhoeffer · Philosophy

Letters and Papers from Prison is a posthumous collection of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's correspondence written during his imprisonment at Tegel military prison in Berlin between April 1943 and October 1944, along with some earlier papers and the poem "Who Am I?" written near the end.

Both dig into identity.